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[Pensive music.]
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The story of our communities,
people, and nation
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starts a long, long
time ago.
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[Music]
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More than 60,000 years,
in fact.
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[Music.]
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This was when our culture
and our law
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first started to thrive.
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[Music.]
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We knew who we were,
and where we belonged.
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We took care of each other,
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our land, and our waters.
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We ate food that
made us healthy.
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Lived on country,
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and abided by our laws,
and song lines.
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Our families, our children,
were happy,
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with strong minds and hearts,
because
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they were where they belonged.
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[Strong music.]
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[Soft heartbeat.]
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But, then...
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everything changed.
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Colonization came,
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bringing wars, disease,
famine.
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Violence.
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And the destruction
and violation
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of our cultural laws,
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sacred sites,
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families,
and communities.
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We were denied our knowledge,
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language, ceremonies,
and identity.
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The very things that tell us
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who we are,
and where we belong.
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And our connections
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with each other, and the land,
grew weak.
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And then,
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our children
were taken from us.
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They had their names changed,
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and their identities stripped away.
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They were told
that aboriginal people were bad.
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Worse still,
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they were told
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that their parents,
and grandparents,
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did not want them.
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For years, this happened.
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Those children became known
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as "The Stolen Generations."
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Our children were denied love,
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and experienced physical, emotional,
and sexual abuse.
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This left very deep,
very complex,
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and very real wounds,
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leaving scars that are
still being felt
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personally, socially,
spiritually, and collectively.
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In the time
when our story started,
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we were able to parent
in the cultural way
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that has seen our family
survive and thrive,
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for generations.
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Our people were strong,
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and our culture flowed,
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and healed us
in times of hurt.
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But, since the trauma
of colonization
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and the stolen generations,
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we have not been able to heal
in the same way.
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We have unknowingly passed
this trauma to our children,
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through sharing our sad stories,
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and having them witness
and experience our pain.
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This is known as
Intergenerational Trauma.
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We see symptoms today,
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in broken relationships,
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disconnected families,
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violence, suicide,
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and drug and alcohol abuse.
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But, this is not
where our story ends.
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We still have
strong minds and hearts,
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and we still know
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who we were,
and where we belong.
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By creating safe and strong
communities together,
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supporting our families
to be free from pain,
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returning to our culture,
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and building a strength
of identity,
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we can stop the cycle
of trauma,
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and bring about
positive intergenerational change,
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so that we can continue
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to thrive for the next
60,000 years.
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There are simple things
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that we can all do,
to help heal our trauma.
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Visit
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healingfoundation.org.au
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to find out more.